The Tsunami and China

Term Paper # 59312

Asian Studies
Economics > International
Hot Topics

An analysis of the impact of the Asian tsunami on international relations with China.

2,509 words () | 12 sources | MLA | 2005

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how China's reaction to the Asian tsunami illustrates that not only has it come out of its isolation, but that it is intent on becoming a regional superpower. It looks at how the reaction to the event shows that China is not the global threat to peace and stability as it is often pictured, but a developing superpower, which has identified regional and global political and economic stability as essential requirements for Chinese stability and growth.

From the Paper:

"Throughout the twentieth century, China was an isolated nation, never interacting with global or regional issues. China, over the past decades, was solely focused on its internal affairs and on locking out the external. Thus, China's reaction to the tsunami is significant one because it is the first time in decades for China to express any degree of interest in a regional issue. It has given aid, collected donations from the population, and contributed military and medical to help in the relief operations. In fact, the United Nations did not impose China's isolation, unlike that experienced by other nations like Iraq or Libya, but the Chinese leadership freely chose it. The University of Illinois professor, Suraj Sengupta expressed that China had always been an isolated country that has discouraged, and sometimes prevented, contact with the outside world (389-390). China was the last surviving communist power whose political and economic policies prevented even the exchange of ideas with the West or any other country (390)."